{"id":878542,"date":"2026-08-31T19:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/878542\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T19:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:10:09","slug":"seven-players-including-rizwan-and-imam-dropped-after-second-test-defeat-in-england-pcb-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/878542\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven players, including Rizwan and Imam, dropped after second Test defeat in England: PCB &#8211; Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday announced the release of seven Test squad members, including Mohammad Rizwan, Imamul Haq and Salman Ali Agha, during the ongoing series against England.<\/p>\n<p>The cricket board\u2019s decision came after Pakistan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2026161\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suffered a thumping 194-run defeat<\/a> to England in the second Test at Lord\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>With the victory, the hosts took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match Test series, after the visitors also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2024383\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suffered an innings-and-103-run thrashing<\/a> in the first Test at Headingley.<\/p>\n<p>According to a press release, Rizwan, Imam, Agha, along with Ali Usman, Aamir Jamal, Muhammad Awais Zafar and Khurram Shahzad, have been released from the squad.<\/p>\n<p>The PCB also named seven replacements, including \u201cfive uncapped players at Test level and two capped players\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal, who have played eight and two Tests, respectively, have been called up to the Test squad.<\/p>\n<p>Among the five uncapped players are left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder Arafat Minhas, who has represented Pakistan in three ODIs and four T20Is; left-arm fast bowler Mohammad Imran Jr.; wicketkeeper-batter Saad Baig, who was named player of the tournament in the 2025-26 Quaid-i-Azam Trophy; and right-arm pace-bowling all-rounders Mohammad Imran (also known as Imran Randhawa) and Razaullah.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe players will join the Pakistan squad ahead of the third Test against England,\u201d the release said. The third and final match of the series is scheduled for September 9 in Birmingham.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Test head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul have also been relieved of their duties, the release said, adding that white-ball head coach Mike Hesson and Ashley Noffke will replace them on the backroom staff.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"updated-test-squad-for-birmingham-test\" href=\"#updated-test-squad-for-birmingham-test\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>Updated Test squad for Birmingham Test:<\/p>\n<p>Babar Azam (captain), Abdullah Fazal, Arafat Minhas, Azan Awais, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Imran, Mohammad Imran Jnr, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (wicket-keeper), Razaullah, Saad Baig (wicket-keeper) Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood and Ubaid Shah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday announced the release of seven Test squad members, including Mohammad Rizwan,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":["post-878542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}